Irish government has given up on the ordinary people claims Sinn Fein deputy

A Sinn Fein deputy has accused the Irish government of reneging on its election promises to the people and putting the interests of the banks and big business first.

Donegal member of the Irish Parliament, Pearse Doherty told delegates to the party’s annual meeting that working people had ‘paid enough’ to rescue the failing economy.

He called on the Fine Gael and Labor Party coalition to shift the burden of easing Ireland’s financial crisis back onto the developers and bankers who had dragged the country down.

Doherty also claimed that the conditions imposed as part of the EU-IMF bailout for Ireland was crippling the country’s economy and Irish society.

“Having promised to renegotiate this bad deal, the new Fine Gael-Labor government have acquiesced to the spirit and letter of the failed Fianna Fail policy,” Doherty told delegates to the Belfast Ard Fheis (annual meeting).

“In exchange for EU and IMF loans, our so-called partners in Europe are forcing us to starve our domestic economy of the stimulus it needs while pouring billions of tax-payers’ monies into toxic banks.

“Only a few short weeks ago Fine Gael and Labour threw another €6.4billion of public money into the banks. Yet in the same month they were promising up to €4billion in cuts and tax hikes in the December budget.

“For those of you struggling with lower wages, rising prices and the unjust Universal Social Charge, the government is saying that you must pay more; they are saying that you must now pay a new household charge, water charges, property taxes and increased income tax bills.”

Doherty also called on the Dublin government to invest in jobs and services and pressed for the introduction of a distressed mortgage resolution body.

“It is time for the banks and bondholders to shoulder their fair share of the burden they helped create,” said Deputy Doherty.